The Secret War and Rumors
by TheCatholicFanGirl
Summary: Audrey and Nathan have a bad day at work, after a talk with Duke. The boys decide to go to Vince and Dave for answers on how and why the Troubles started, Audrey tags along, what do they find out? Implied D/A/N! Don't like don't read.


Duke walked into the apartment not seeing Audrey or Nathan right away. A quick trip around the apartment he found them on the bathroom floor, Audrey was curled up sobbing quietly against Nathan. Duke looked alarmed at Nathan, who seemed to frown deeper. Duke knelt next to them and he patted Audrey's back awkwardly.

Audrey's sobs slowly hiccupped to a stop, and the boys realized she was asleep. Nathan carried her to the bed and turned on the lamp. Duke saw that she had a cut on her face that wasn't bleeding heavily, and she had a few scratches along her arms. The boys patched up the cuts as gently as they could while Audrey slept.

"What happened?" Duke whispered to Nathan.

"Kitchen," was all Nathan said.

Once in the kitchen Duke saw that Nathan's face was swollen on the left side and starting to rash up. He had cuts along his arms and he was holding a cloth to his hand. "Are you okay?" Duke asked.

Nathan frowned as Duke ran his hands through Nathan's head searching for a cracked skull, broken bones, and swollenness. "Yes," He nodded. "Audrey and I just had a really rough day today."

"Understatement of the year, you two look like your arms went through a forest of razorblades, and your faces are swollen." Duke scoffed and then walked to the freezer.

"What are you doing?" Nathan asked.

"Trying to get that swelling down." He said and held a pack of frozen peas to his face. "What happened?"

"Troubled girl, her mom didn't know about it, mom freaked out, blamed everything on Audrey, and then the girl jumped off a building, into the forest, we were searching for hours with the Church Crew breathing down our necks. Saying we were the cause of this. Eventually we found the girl, she had no chance of living, and we took her to the mother who punched Audrey called her a couple of choice words, and punched her I stepped in and …"

"Got a shiner," Duke scoffed. "What was the trouble?"

"The girl could mess with objects, telekinesis, I guess." Nathan shrugged.

"Hey, that reminds me." Duke said setting down the peas and working on Nathan's hand. "Have you ever noticed that the Troubles seem to be troubles based for like a war?" he asked.

Nathan frowned. "What do you mean?"

"Okay, aside from the cake trouble, like Ginger," Duke said "She could make anyone do anything, if I were in battle, and I thought I was too tired to continue fighting, she would just say whatever to get me back on that field. Or those water breathers, huh? Can you say 'navy'?" Duke said.

Nathan frowned and thought for a moment. "It makes since…" Nathan sighed. "And I'm not able to feel anything makes me pretty tough to hurt in battle."

"And whenever blood gets on me bam! Super strength" Duke pointed out. "I think we've been looking at this all wrong, instead of dealing with the Troubles, right now… Why don't we figure out how our families came here? How our Troubles became ours."

Nathan nodded. "First thing in the morning, we go talk to Vince and Dave."

OoOo

Audrey felt sick but she got up anyways with the help of Duke and Nathan. Nathan iced her face and Duke changed her bandages. "What do we have on the agenda today?" she asked.

"Duke and I were thinking about going to Vince and Dave." Nathan told her pouring milk in cereal. "We have an idea…"

"The Troubles are Troubles for war." Duke said. "A super power you need for war, an invincible man, and some people who can breathe underwater, the sight of something that scares you is a person…"

Audrey hummed and sipped from her coffee. "It's worth a shot. Maybe if we figure out where and why the Troubles originated, maybe we'll figure out why I went away. That is if Vince and Dave tell us everything."

They got ready for the day, and started down stairs to see a crowd of church people. "Fantastic, I thought this town was done with looking like rednecks." Duke muttered looking at a few people with rifles in their hands.

"There she is!" one of the people in the crowd shouted.

"Guys calm down." Nathan said pulling back his coat to show his gun and badge.

"You can't protect each other for very long!" One of the mothers shouted from the porch. "Eventually you'll get tired of sleeping on the couch."

The three of them exchanged glances. "Okay," Duke shouted. "Nathan, I believe that these people are not welcome on my property."

"Oh, well Duke that's too bad, I guess I'm just going to have to call the squad cars and arrest all of them for trespassing." Nathan smirked.

"You can't do that!" a man shouted.

"Chief of police," Nathan shrugged. "Doesn't matter if the court proves that I was wrong or not, it's still going to show up on your record when you attempt to get a new job, or decide to move, when you get pulled over for a speeding ticket." He listed.

The people dispersed pretty quickly.

"They don't know the three of us…" Audrey whispered.

"Nope let's try not for the church people to find other ways of hating us." Duke said and they piled into Duke's car.

IiIiIi

"We're sorry, our records don't go back that far," Vince shrugged moving a box to Dave's desk.

"He's right; anything we have before the twenties is in the public library." Vince said.

"In twenty-twenty we move up to the thirties." Dave nodded smiling. The two brothers sat there smiling at the three.

"What?" Audrey asked.

"Well, there are a couple of rumors going on…" Vince said. "About you three…"

"What are they?" Duke asked wincing.

"Audrey and Nathan are…" Vince giggled.

"Or Audrey and Duke…" Dave said.

"With the other sleeping on the couch, protecting Audrey from harm," Vince nodded.

Audrey rolled her eyes. "It's not like that guys," she sighed.

"Duke and Nathan?" Dave asked his eyebrows rose.

Audrey sighed and looked to the ground "Should we tell them?"

Duke scoffed and then took two large steps closer to Audrey and grasped her hand. Nathan grabbed her free hand. They laughed at the brother's shocked faces.

"The three of you are t-together?" Dave asked.

They let go of each other's hands quickly. "Yeah, this won't go around the town too fast will it?" Audrey asked wincing.

The brother's jaws were still on the floor.

"I'm guessing that's a yes." Nathan smirked.

"H-how?" Dave stuttered.

"That night, we all fell asleep in the same bed, and we haven't stopped." Audrey shrugged crossing her arms. "I was done thinking I had to choose between them."

"So that day that Audrey got a new bed in town, it was bigger for you three?" Vince asked.

"Yeah," Duke said dreamily. "I love that bed."

"Back to the subject at hand," Nathan sighed. "We're thinking that the troubles are designed for a war any ideas?"

The brothers looked at each other then back at them innocently. "No," they said at the same time.

"Great," Audrey sighed. "We'll find out eventually why can't you guys just tell us?"

A moment of silence "Boys do you remember any of the history lessons on how Haven came to be?" Dave asked.

"No," Duke scoffed.

Nathan shrugged.

"When the town was built, it was essentially a cult." Dave insisted gesturing with his hands. "Few years later, the cult was looking to expand, so they invited the criminals, and broken war heroes from the war."

"Which war?" Audrey asked.

"We don't know." Vince shrugged. "In the old writings it's called the secret war,"

"But you can guess who the criminals were." Dave pointed.

"The troubles," Audrey breathed.

Dave nodded "Then things started happening and the journal of Anne McAllister says that the troubles got so out of order that a great sacrifice needed to happen."

"The first time Audrey went into the barn." Nathan guessed. "Then what?"

"Anne died, and for twenty seven years, everything was at peace." Dave took off his glasses and rubbed his eyes. "That's when the troubles started happening again, but this time there were reports from across the country, many fled to Haven, hearing the original name of the cult. Tutus Portus, meaning Safe Haven in Latin. Eventually the name dwindled down to just Haven."

"A haven for people who had troubles" Audrey nodded.

"Then journals started again, talks about a war. Some seemed to say that the troubled seemed to take things up so easily it was like they were born for it. Eventually church separated from the town, twenty seven years later, same strange things. Twenty seven years later…" Dave sighed.

"The theory you guys have about the troubles being designed for a war, makes since, but we don't know much." Vince said sadly.

"We won't stop trying to figure it out." Audrey nodded.

"I know you won't." Dave nodded back at her. "But keep in mind, you missing the Barn hasn't happened in centuries from our count. We don't know what's going to happen."

"One thing's for sure," Duke said. "We're not going to let Audrey go into that Barn."

"We know," Vince nodded. "We want Audrey to stay too, there's something different about her this time around."

Duke threw an arm around her and gave her a hug. "It's the blonde hair, she wasn't that good as a red head." He teased her and kissed the flat part of her nose.


End file.
